


For Their Family

by acaciarosemasen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Muggle world, One Shot, Wizarding World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25672606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acaciarosemasen/pseuds/acaciarosemasen
Summary: To protect their son from Voldemort, James and Lily Potter have to make some difficult decisions.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Kudos: 13





	For Their Family

**January 1982**

James Potter stood silently staring out his bedroom window as his wife, Lily, slept fitfully in their bed. She was worried, they both were. There was a war going on in the wizarding world. One that was going long before they graduated from Hogwarts. The Ministry and the Order were doing their best against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Most days it seemed that their best wasn’t good enough. Lily and James had been removed from the fighting for quite some time now.

Ever since Albus Dumbledore had come to tell him and his wife that their newborn son was a possible candidate for a prophecy concerning Voldemort. He had urged his past students to go into hiding without even telling them what the prophecy was all about exactly. The two of them had been alarmed and Lily, exhausted from giving birth the night before, had agreed immediately but James had put his foot down wanting to know exactly what the prophecy said, to get a better idea on how to protect his son – if this was even about his son.

With great reluctance their former headmaster told them the prophecy that he had been informed of by Sybil Trelawney – who, for her safety, was now the new Divination professor at Hogwarts – in its entirety. After hearing the whole thing, word for word, James had agreed that they should take heavy precautions, but he didn’t understand why they should have to go into hiding.

That was when Dumbledore explained that part of the prophecy had been overheard by one of Voldemort’s death eaters – the identifying part of the prophecy at that. He really ought to have mentioned that first when he was trying to convince them to go into hiding.

But go into hiding they did.

They had had the Potter house-elves pack up and store everything that was of sentimental or monetarily valuable and abandoned everything else in their two-story cottage home in Godric’s Hollow. The three Potters had moved around the various homes or safe houses that had been set up for occasions such as this by previous family members.

Harry had only been hours old when they were told of the prophecy; it was now eighteen months to the day since they had gotten that news. James and Lily had celebrated their son’s first birthday six months ago with as much enthusiasm as they could. The parents did the same at Christmastime just a few weeks ago but their hearts were so weighed down with worry… well it was good thing Harry was still so young – he probably wouldn’t remember his parents’ behavior in the long run. It was hard on the parents without their friends to help celebrate their son and the holidays with them. The small family was currently staying in Potter Manor, one of the more heavily warded places that the family owned. They’d been here for the past twelve weeks – the longest they had stayed at any of the Potter properties.

They should have left by now, but they were running out of options, of places to hide. As much as they needed the help, the Potters had decided it would be too risky to involve anyone outside of the two of them. This especially hurt James as he considered Sirius, Remus, and Peter to be more than just his friends from school. They were his brothers. He deemed it the height of dishonor not to entrust his fellow Marauders with everything that was going on with the plans around protecting Harry… but it was Harry, his son – his heir.

And while he would never believe that his friends would betray his family there could be slip ups that could get around to other people… people that weren’t necessarily on their side. The last time they had been in contact with Dumbledore – nearly eight months ago – he had revealed to them about several incidences that had occurred where operations were unsuccessful and how Voldemort and his Death Eaters were three steps ahead of them. If there was a mole – and it was more than possible that there indeed was – Lily and James didn’t want any information about their whereabouts to get back to them.

James turned to look at Lily once more. She had finally settled down, though he noticed that even in sleep his wife’s brow was furrowed with tension. Her hands were resting protectively over her baby bump.

The messy-haired man walked away from the window and around the bed so that he was on Lily’s side. James reached out and gently stroked the side of Lily’s face with the back of his knuckles.

To say it was a shock finding out Lily was pregnant once more was an understatement. The two former Gryffindors didn’t even know how to feel about having a second child when they were already in hiding to protect their first child from an obviously psychotic madman.

But they were having a second child – and he or she was due in about three months’ time, towards the end of March.

“What are we going to do, James?”

James snapped his eyes up from Lily’s belly to see her staring, worriedly, up at him.

“I didn’t mean to wake you, Angel Face. You should get back to sleep, you need the rest, Love.” James responded instead of answering his wife’s question.

Lily couldn’t help the involuntary smile at hearing the pet names James had called her since they had started dating in their seventh year – there were others, many others, but those two were special to her – and shook her head at the obvious avoidance of her question.

“James. I’m… I’m terrified. Voldemort launched an all-out attack on Longbottom Manor just a few weeks ago. Frank and Alice barely got away with Neville. We can’t keep moving around the same safe-houses… we… we need to find a more permanent solution.”

James sighed, “I know. I know we do… it’s… I’m…” James trailed off and looked away from Lily.

Lily reached up and wrapped one of her hands around the one of James’ that was still resting against her cheek. She gave it a light squeeze before shifting so that she could sit up in bed. It was a bit of a struggle and her husband immediately helped her sit up. Once she was situated, the redhead cupped her husband’s face between her hands and gently tilted his head so that he was staring her directly in the eyes.

“You ever just stop and think that we’re just too young?” James asked out of nowhere.

Lily lifted a brow, “How do you mean?”

“We’re twenty-one years old. We graduated three years ago and since then we’ve gotten married, jumped right into fighting Voldemort and Death Eaters while trying to start careers before starting a family and immediately going into hiding. And it’s not like we had an easy time of it in school either. Voldemort was hanging over us like a dark cloud since our third year. It got really bad in fifth year… and then sixth year happened…” James trailed off and sighed, looking down at the space between them.

Lily could easily see what James meant. He was right they were _young_. Yet, they had already experienced so much. Death and war, betrayals and loss…

The redhead moved forward so she could lock eyes with her husband once more.

“It wasn’t all bad. Hogwarts wasn’t all that bad. Getting married, having Harry, and – even though there is a war going on – having this new baby… that’s not bad. I’d say it’s pretty damn special.” Lily said causing James to look directly in her sparkling green eyes. James chuckled as he rested one hand on Lily’s baby bump and leaned forward, so his forehead was resting against Lily’s forehead.

“Having our son and this new baby, getting married and doing all of this _with_ _you_ ispretty damn special. You’re right – as you so often tell me.” Lily managed another small smile before James’ lips were on hers, giving her a slow sweet kiss. James pulled away and continued in a low whisper, “You say you’re terrified, and I want nothing more than to reassure you that we’re going to be fine, but I can’t do that. I’m… I’m terrified too. I’m terrified I won’t be able to protect you or our children when the time comes and I keep trying to come up with plans, ideas, anything… I’ve got a couple ideas but…” James shook head as he revealed to his wife that he might not be able to protect his family.

“Oh James,” Lily murmured before enveloping her husband in a warm hug. “you don’t have to come up with everything on your own. I can help… now listen here, Potter,” Lily warned when James made a sound as if to interrupt her, “ _You_ just said that doing this _together_ was worth all the difficult times we had to endure. So, we are going to figure out how to protect our family together.” James couldn’t help the smile he felt forming on his face for Lily had stated the last bit using the same tone that she did back in Hogwarts as Head Girl when she caught out younger students violating the rules.

“I love you; you know that?” James told his wife more than asked.

“I know.” Lily answered smugly before kissing James. “I love you too.” She said simply before kissing him once again.

When they broke apart, they remained silent for a few minutes before James revealed to Lily something he had been thinking of for a while now.

“We could leave.” James said.

Lily quirked a brow, “Leave?”

“England – the United Kingdom… we could leave. You, me, Harry… the baby… we could start over. Somewhere else… like the States or Australia. Somewhere far away from Voldemort and this war.” James explained.

Lily’s brows scrunched together as she thought about her husband’s idea. “We’d have to leave soon.” Lily thought aloud.

“We would.” James answered.

“Would we? We would need money and documents…”

“We have all the important documents for both the wizarding and muggle worlds in that portfolio briefcase we’ve been carrying between safe-houses since this all started. As for money we’ve got plenty of money on hand in this house. We might need to exchange galleons for pounds… but we do have some muggle money stashed here too.” James answered.

“If we started over… what would happen to all the Potter properties?” Lily questioned.

“I’ve been moving a lot of the valuables and other family heirlooms either here or into the family vaults at Gringotts… as for the properties themselves… They are all warded, we’ve both added extra protections each time we stayed at one of them… and even if Voldemort or his minions enter… well we won’t be there.” James shrugged.

Lily considered everything her husband said for a moment before shaking her head, smile in place, “… and you said you only had ideas.”

“So, it was more plan than idea than I thought.”

“Where would you want to go? You said the States or Australia?”

“Either one, they’re both big enough countries that we can get lost in… especially if we don’t interact with the wizarding communities.”

“You’d live the Muggle life? Even get a job in the Muggle world?” Lily questioned surprised.

“If you or I got a job in the Wizarding world, in either countries, they would probably want references and it could get back to the ministry and the ministry…” James explained.

“The ministry has its share of spies working for Voldemort.” Lily finished.

“Exactly.”

“You realize that if we try to get jobs in the Muggle world… well, we’re not really qualified for much of anything.”

“True… except…” James trailed off.

“What?” Lily questioned.

“Well, Lily Love, you’ve never actually cared to know about my family’s finances… you were very determined to contribute to our family by working and… well… suffice it to say, we never actually needed to work. Wherever we move to we could live out our lives as full time parents or we could get the schooling and training we needed to get Muggle jobs.”

Lily sat silently contemplating what her husband had said. Finally, she raised her head, eyebrows raised and asked, “Do I even want to know how much money your family has?”

“Enough that our great-grandchildren’s grandchildren will be comfortable.”

“Do you even know what you would do if you got a job in the Muggle world?” Lily questioned as she decided to focus on the second of her husband’s suggestions.

“Not really… no…” James admitted with a smile, “but I’m sure I’d find something eventually.”

Lily shook her head at James’s confidence. “Okay.”

“Okay?” James probed; head tilted to side.

“Okay, as in let’s pick a country, pack up our son and get out of here.” Lily determined.

James laughed as he ducked down to kiss his wife on the lips.

* * *

Less than a week later, James and Lily had crossed the pond with their son and settled in the bustling city of New York. It wasn’t their first choice, but after discussing it they decided getting lost in a huge city would be beneficial for their family.


End file.
